The Groton Weather Blog is just another dimension of the Groton Weather experience. I use the blog for longer range forecasts, updates and more in depth information on major events, as well as educational purposes. Please leave comments any time you wish; I am hoping this becomes more interactive! And be sure to check out the homepage at www.grotonweather.com!

Thursday, October 28, 2010

One of the major draws to SUNY Oswego for meteorology majors (besides the epic snow) is the waterspouts that occur every fall over Lake Ontario. For those that are not familiar with waterspouts, they are similar to weak tornadoes over water. They are caused in part by the stark differences between the warm lake waters and cold air over top, hence why they occur mostly in the fall.

As the 4th and final fall of my time at Oswego began to draw to a close...I had begun to relent to the fact that waterspout season was ending and, in all four of my years, I had not yet seen one. I have had many close calls, but they are typically short lived and difficult to spot. However, today, my patience finally paid off and I was treated to a total of three waterspouts!

And, the number one rule of a meteorologist is to ALWAYS have your camera on hand. And so, thanks to that rule, here are some pictures of the waterspouts I witnessed at long last! Enjoy!

It may not look like the previous pictures'waterspouts were touching the water. However,this picture, in the middle, shows the "sprayring" beneath the funnels. Even though invisible,the circulation of these waterspouts mostcertainly extended from cloud to water.Even with the 24x zoom on my camera, it isstill difficult to see the spray. Look right abovethe water, just slight right of center.

This was the last funnel I saw, and the hardestto see/photograph. The lighter gray area in thetop center is the funnel. This one only lasted acouple minutes and was much closer to shorethan the other two.

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About Me

I am an Atmospheric Sciences graduate student at Cornell with a B.S. in meteorology from SUNY Oswego. My love for the weather has inspired the website grotonweather.com. Since its launch in 2006, grotonweather.com has evolved into a comprehensive multimedia weather source for the Eastern Finger Lakes. I employ cutting edge forecast techniques and have unique tools for my users, such as forecast confidence meters and the hazardous weather table.
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